London’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner has said the authorities need to up their game and work closely together to avoid another Gatwick-style drone incident.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Met Commissioner Cressida Dick said her force is supporting Sussex Police in investigating the drone disruption at Gatwick that led to thousands of travellers having flight delays or cancellations just before Christmas when the airport was shut down.
Gatwick has offered a £50,000 reward through Crimestoppers for information leading to the arrest of those who used drones to cause the disruption. Former Conservative party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft is offering a further £10,000.
The Commissioner said: "It’s a large and complex investigation. Clearly there were many sightings. A drone can pop up and disappear very quickly. Drone technology is always changing and we need to up our game and work closely together. There is a whole variety of tactics and technology that we are using and can use.
"I’ve been talking to colleagues around the world. This is not an easy problem. It’s a difficult challenge."
Meanwhile, the couple wrongly accused of causing the Gatwick drone chaos, can expect to get a ‘substantial payout’ according to libel lawyer Mark Stephens of law firm Howard Kennedy.
He said Paul Gait and Elaine Kirk had a strong legal case after being arrested, held and then later released without charge, but not before their names and faces were splashed across the media in the UK and around the world.
Stephens said: "The damage is likely to be in the region of £75,000 to £125,000. It could be more. I don’t see any lawyer who wouldn’t take it on a no-win-no-fee basis."
The couple were taken in for questioning on Friday, with Sussex police confirming only that a 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman from Crawley had been arrested in relation to the incident.
They were identified in many newspapers and the Mail on Sunday ran the couple’s picture on its front page next to the headline: "Are these the morons who ruined Christmas?"
After their release, the couple said they felt ‘completely violated’.
There have been calls for the Met Police to take over the Gatwick drone inquiry, after Sussex Police was criticised for its handling of the case.
Among actions criticised was a statement by Detective Chief Superintendent Jason Tingley who said there was ‘always a possibility that there may not have been any genuine drone activity in the first place’. Later, the force backtracked.
Lord Harris, former Home Office representative to the Metropolitan Police authority, said: "Clearly if you treated it like a terrorist threat, the Metropolitan Police would have been leading the operation."
